Conrad Liveris on why the gender pay gap needs to go.
_________
Nothing frustrates me more than the gender pay gap.
Earlier this year it was announced that the Australian gap had widened to 1994 levels, 18.2%. In America, for every dollar a man earns a woman earns 81 cents.
The gender pay gap isn’t the only indicator of progress for women but it is certainly an important one.
Closing these gaps is a priority — for our nations, economies and businesses.
A perpetual pay gap only enflames the differences between men and women. This categorises men as bread-winners and women as supporters, when that is less and less the case.
Today the Workplace Gender Equality Agency is gathering some of the leading corporate actors to commit to closing and being accountable for the gap in their organisations. Having almost 30 CEOs come together and commit to action is a great foundation.
We all have a duty to the gender pay gap, from CEOs to those in their first managerial roles. This is not a delegable task.
There are breadths of resources at the fingertips of managers to close the gender pay gap — but maybe accountability is the best tool we have.
In times of increased discussion of gender and feminism it is easy to become complacent on systemic issues.
The gender pay gap follows women throughout their careers from their first job through to leadership and then retirement.
Managers with distinct gender pay gaps must ask themselves why they are undervaluing women’s contributions.
♦◊♦
How many times do we have to say that women are innovative and worth supporting in the workplace? Or that staff on flexible arrangements are more productive than traditional full-time staff?
Gender equality can only be realised when the whole team is on board. This means we must work with the willing to begin with to build an adequate support base.
We are not living in Mad Men, the gender pay gap should not be widening nor should it be present.
If women’s wages grew to that of men’s, the US economy would expand by US$447 billion.
All governments are focused on effective uses of resources — but we are not using women’s talent effectively.
A rising gender pay gap says that discrimination and inequality are acceptable. It says that there are different expectations between men and women.
I am confident in closing the gender pay gap and realising gender equality. But it is more than just CEOs who can do this.
It starts with leaders and those with the capacity to inform widely — but every manager must consider their role.
The challenge has been put, gender equality is in our hands.
__________
Information on the In Your Hands campaign can be viewed at inyourhands.org.au
Much of the gender pay gap is based on the choices we make even the Shriver report recognizes that. People have recognized that these choices are influenced by societal expectations. There is a desire for them to be equalized. Women shouldn’t be punished for being the primary child care providers. I suspect that they’d object to the same application for men where men are disadvantaged. For example, men are given longer prison terms than women for the same crime. One of the main reasons for this is that women are given more sentencing departures in large part because they are… Read more »
When I have been a manager of contract workers, the job title had a pay rate and that is what people were paid.
It didn’t matter if they were black, white, purple, green, male, female, transgender, gay, straight, wore glasses, wore contacts, tall, short, fat, thin, or anything else.
My ex-wife might make less than some co-workers. But, her decision to leave the workforce for about 8 years to stay home with the kids had a lot to do with that.
In fact, gay men are penalized in the workforce whereas lesbians are rewarded. Google the study!!!
A quote from the study you link to.
“It is important to note that the comparisons
of earnings in this report are on a broad level and do
not control for many factors that can be significant in
explaining earnings differences”
So then all women should make the same as all men, regardless of choices, professions, hours worked, experience , how dangerous the job is, how much time the person has at the company. Nothing matters, only do you have a vagina, if so, you MUST be paid the same as that man who has a Phd and you have a masters, he has worked her for 20 years, you just walked in the door, He works 60+ hours a week, you work 40. Of course there were countries where this did occur, but sadly they did not work out so… Read more »